Pastor’s Note
I remember when I purchased my first “Keep Christ in Christmas” button. It was red and green with a holly leaf. I displayed it proudly on my winter coats and jackets. It was my “silent witness” to the world. It testified that I wouldn’t bow the proverbial knee to the commercialization of my Savior’s birthday. Ironically, I wore it most proudly as I actually participated in that commercialization while fighting for good parking spots during this season of “peace.”
I don’t remember when the word “Xmas” started bothering me, but it certainly must have been somewhere I perceived the “Glory” to be stolen from baby Jesus. Standing in stores, I would look with disdain at Frosty and Rudolph, scoff accordingly and then look back at the manger scene as if to say, “Like you were there…HA!” I would loudly say, “Merry CHRISTmas!” to store clerks as I checked out. I wanted to ensure that the pagan hordes in line behind me knew this actually a HOLYday not just some “holiday.”
I was very good at keeping “Christ” in Christmas. I purchased a bumper sticker the following year. I upgraded to a “nicer” lapel pin. I even purchased a flashing red and green (I’m not kidding) seasonal broach-type pin for Kim to wear on her sweater. It proudly flashed our Christmas motto—“Keep CHRIST in Christmas.”
We put Bible verses in our Christmas cards, after all, this was supposed to be “all about Jesus” not “all about Santa.” The world, the culture and even the church had all sold out, but not us. We stood as a flashing red and green beacon in the darkness. We were salt-n-light, red-n-green, button-wearing witnesses for baby Jesus. If I was honest, somewhere deep down I believed that this was what it meant to be a CHRISTian at CHRISTmas.
Although, I was very good at keeping “Christ” in Christmas, I began to see how bad I was at keeping Christ in my heart. It seemed that God was more concerned about keeping “Christ” in my heart than on my lapel. I began to see that my heart was hijacking more glory from Christ than Wal-Mart ever could. Retailers simply decorated for the holidays, but my heart was adorning itself with self-righteousness and pride. Children might have been “nestled all snug in their beds while visions of sugarplums danced through their heads,” but I would crawl under the covers and thank the Lord that “I was not like other men…” It is tragic reality, but it’s true.
It was in Greek class in Seminary that my worldview imploded. I don’t think I had my button on that day, but it was Christmas time and the professor was writing something on the board. He drew an “X” and then said something about Christ. My heart protested, “HERESY! HERETIC! Cast out the evildoer from among us!” How could my beloved professor have been so poisoned by our culture that he too would have reduced my beloved Savior to an “X”? Where was my button when I needed it at Reformed Seminary?
My professor then made a sidebar comment that hit me like a sleigh full of Bibles. He said that many “evangelicals” rail against the word “Xmas” in a narrow, church-ianity, knee-jerk against the culture. He went on to explain that “X” was the Greek symbol for Chi, the first letter in the Greek spelling of the name of Christ—Xristos. He remarked that the “X” (Chi) had been used for centuries by the church as a symbol in reference to Christ.
The irony of that truth flooded my mind. On the one hand, our culture in seeking to “purge” Christ from Christmas had actually retained Him. On the other hand, I had, in my ignorance and arrogance, mistakenly believed I had retained Him with my symbolic reverence, but had actually purged him by missing His heart altogether.
When I told Melissa, my assistant at Southwood, the title of this article, she laughed and said, “I bet you’ll get some responses on that.” I hope so. I hope that our response this Christmas season is to move Christ from our lapels to our hearts and from symbolic reverence to kneeling before His throne. Happy Holidays and may we all keep Christ in Xmas.